TAX THE HEAT INTERVIEW

Alex Veale on vocals and Jack Taylor on drums make up half of alt-rock band Tax The Heat. The lads from Bristol have been making waves on the rock scene since their acclaimed debut Fed To The Lions was released. The band have a refreshingly modern sound with a nod to the past masters of the 60s and 70s. Photogroupie caught up with Jack and Alex at Ramblin' Man Fair.

PHOTOGROUPIE (PG): ALEX, YOU'VE SAID THAT AEROSMITH HAS BEEN A HUGE INFLUENCE. THERE'S EVEN A BIT OF STEVE TYLER IN YOUR VOCALS, WAS THAT BY CHANCE OR DESIGN?

ALEX (A): I don't know if that was intentional. I love that guy, he's a great singer. I was addicted to Aerosmith when I was 10 years old, they were the first band I got into, so I guess it has come out a little bit. It took me a while to find my voice when I first started singing, I never thought 'I want to sound like Steve Tyler' – nobody can sound like him. There's probably bits of him in there in the way I deliver phrases. There's so many influences, Bon Scott, Steve Marriott I'd love to be able to sing like him. It's a wish list, that's all it is.

PG: ALL THOSE INFLUENCES ARE BOUND TO COME OUT THOUGH AREN'T THEY?

JACK (J): Those bands that have those guys in them, that's the stuff we really love. I'm sure that comes through in what we do because that's where we're coming from. At the same time, we want to do our own thing with Tax The Heat and use those influences to create our own version and do our own thing.

PG: THE BAND'S NAME IS QUITE INTERESTING, THE ONLY REFERENCE WE COULD FIND WAS IN THE BEATLES SONG TAXMAN.

J: You got it, well spotted!

A: There're some funny things people ask us about the name, some people get it straight away, other people come up with some really amazing ideas how we came up with the name.

J: One great thing about it is that it's a nonsensical line from a song that really does mean something, that's as much of a statement in itself, and we love The Beatles.

PG: DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE BEATLES TRACK?

A: We were talking about this on the way here.

J: (Jokes) How long have you got?

A: I saw an article that published the ten worst Beatles songs and some of my favourite songs were in there like She's So Heavy, Come Together, what an amazing tune.

J: I love a track called the Word which has got quite a similar sound to Taxman.

A: My favourite song is actually one that they never really put out called Rain on the Past Masters Collection, it's absolutely amazing.

J: ...The whole second side of Abbey Road.

A: ...We're going to be here all day if we talk about this!

PG: GOING BACK TO AEROSMITH, THEY WERE KNOWN AS BAD BOYS FROM BOSTON. WERE YOU EVER TEMPTED TO CALL YOURSELF THE BAD BOYS FROM BRISTOL?

A: (Laughs) We could have done, there were a few names in the bag, but we'll take that!

PG: WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ALBUM?

A: Oh there are too many.

J: I don't know if I could get close to narrowing that down. Maybe top 50 is the closest I could get. We've mentioned with a lot of the old school bands but we worked on our EP with an amazing producer called Chris Goss who worked on an album that we all love - Rated R by Queens Of The Stone Age, definitely for the newer stuff that's up there for us.